Vu Crew in Budapest

Some of you thought the day would never come when I'd be saying Szia (hi!) from Budapest, but we finally landed after what seemed like days of flying. We left for the airport on Sunday around 2 pm and arrived in Budapest on Monday around noon. Surprisingly, it wasn't the 9.5 hour flight from the Houston to Frankfurt that did us in, it was the little 1.5 hour flight from Frankfurt to Budapest that the kids protested and complained about (oh - and threw up on, but I'll spare you the disgusting details). And then, of course, they weren't too thrilled with the 30 minute taxi drive from the airport. But it's all through now and hopefully they'll forget about it all when we have to head home in a couple of months.

For right now we're staying at a Marriott Hotel with this beautiful view of the Danube River. If you can believe it, Andy took this picture at 5 pm. It looks like it's midnight! From what I've heard, the sun goes down around 4. Sheesh!
Here's our little Maya passed out on the couch about an hour after check in at the hotel. The kids and I took turns sleeping all afternoon. I know, I know, you veteran international travelers are probably shaking your heads and wagging your fingers, saying 'you're going to be up all night tonight!' You know what, it was worth it. Who cares if it's 11 pm here and I have no intention of falling asleep any time soon. :)
Andy's the only one who stayed up today, but I caught him a few times going into "screen-saver" mode while sitting on the couch only to be awakened by his leg having a muscle spasm or his chin hitting his chest!

I heard that Budapest got some snow about a week ago, but there's no sign of it now. Despite the snowlessness, is that a word? I have a feeling its' not because there's a big, bold red line under it, but you catch my drift. Despite the fact there's no snow, it's still pretty darn cold. And you know there always has to be some kind of packing mishap when you take trips like this. Do you want to know who has 4 jackets packed away in the suitcases? That would be Maya. Do you want to know who has 0? That would be me! Yeah, that's right I left my jacket at home. I'm only slightly bummed that I have to get a new one tomorrow!

Of all the delicious Hungarian restaurants we could have gone to for our first night here, we choose..... Italian. Yep, that's right. Italian. Thinking back about it, it sounds pretty lame, but it was the closest restaurant to the hotel. And after feeding the kids crap all afternoon (because they wouldn't eat the airplane food), I was just looking for the easiest, warm meal I could find. I let you know hopefully tomorrow about the famous goulash they serve here.

Bye for now